On Jan 25th Ha'Aretz published an article about the Pest-Scout project entitled "Fighting pests with GPS". It is a testament of the benefits that the Pest-Scout system can bring to both agriculture workers, residents and tourists:

The new software was developed by the R&D North, led by researcher Dr. Liora Shealtiel and a series of other professionals, along with ScanTask company. It will allow pest scouts, using their cellular phone, to enter information collected to date such as pest definition, location, stage of development, natural enemies etc. But now, as opposed to the former method, the information will be automatically sent to a computerized data base. Collected data will indicate in real time the presence of pests, their location and direction of movement.
According to Ben-yashar, the information will enable pest scouts in the field to know which pests are in areas adjacent to them, will help instructors to suggest intelligent treatments against pests and give farmers a tool for tracking the success of treatments. In addition, researchers can learn about the movement of pests in time and space and their transition between different crops.
According to Shalit, "this development will enable us to implement the vision of managing pesticide spraying in the spatial level effectively. We must remember that we are dealing with intensive agricultural areas, often close to communities and tourist attractions, with a variety of crops and growers. In the spatial level, the transfer and sharing of information is the most important thing and the new tool will be the basis for doing so. "

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Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said that "The north is a unique area in which agricultural areas are close to residential areas, there are abundant water sources and it is the most touristic area in Israel. All these require promotion of initiatives that will reduce the use of pesticides. The current project is another step in an effort lead by the office to reduce the use of pesticides and promote environmentally friendly agriculture".

To read the full article press here.